Aaron Rodgers devalues mandatory minicamp to justify his absence from Jets practices

Aaron Rodgers' absence for the New York Jets mandatory minicamp is still a topic of conversation. After a report stating that the quarterback questioned head coach Robert Saleh's wording during a controversial press conference, Rodgers went on the "Pardon My Take" podcast and justified his absence.

Rodgers didn't attend the minicamp because he had a pre-planned trip to Egypt. According to the quarterback, the current version of the minicamp is just another Organized Team Activity (OTA) practice, and as he had attended all previous voluntary practices, there was no reason to worry about the absence.

"The thing that people don't understand was that when I was in the NFC North years ago, there used to be a real thing called minicamp," Rodgers said. "It was five practices in three days. Now it's not minicamp. They can arbitrarily put a tag on whatever week of OTAs they want and say this is the minicamp week, which makes it more mandatory than the other weeks. But it was an OTA schedule. That's how words can be a little deceiving from time to time. It can make a story about how I missed a minicamp when it was really two OTA days. I came to the first 10."

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Wording as an issue

According to Dianna Russini, from The Athletic, Rodgers questioned how Saleh worded the quarterback's absence.

^{"The 40-year-old skipped practice the week of June 10 for a trip to Egypt. It was something he planned long before these practices, and something he alerted coach Robert Saleh to ahead of time. The organization knew he'd miss the entire week, even if many outside the building originally misunderstood it as a one-day absence. None of it came as a surprise to the front office or coaches, even though Saleh called it an 'unexcused absence' during a news conference.}

^{Rodgers went to Saleh after that to question why he would call it unexcused. According to Russini, the head coach and his quarterback ironed things out and 'everyone's great now.'"}

Aaron Rodgers hadn't had any issues since joining the New York Jets to attend the team's activities. He participated in voluntary practices both in 2023 and 2024, after he hadn't been a part of the Packers' voluntary offseason work in his last few years in Green Bay.

Robert Saleh said at the time that they knew in advance Rodgers wouldn't be there, but still the absence wouldn't be excused — mostly, for locker room reasons.

Related: Aaron Rodgers reportedly questioned Jets HC Robert Saleh's wording after controversial press conference